Local governmental leaders announced $1.2 million in grant awards on Thursday to help county-based nonprofit and faith-based organizations strengthen security and deter hate crimes, according to an April 4 Montgomery County press release.
Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, County Council President Kate Stewart, council members and other local leaders gathered at the Isiah “Ike” Leggett Executive Office Building in Rockville on April 3 to announce the recipients of the fiscal year 2025 Nonprofit Security Grant Program.
The grants are allocated to 110 Montgomery County nonprofit, faith-based organizations and houses of worship whose facilities have experienced hate crimes or are at “high risk of experiencing hate crimes,” according to the press release. The funds can be used for security purposes, including hiring personnel, planning and training, drills and cameras or a device that shares security camera footage with the police department — this is the first year that the funds can be used for this device, called fususCORE.
“It is unfortunate that we need these grants,” Elrich said during a press conference. “There was a time when we didn’t need these grants. Unfortunately, this is not that time.”
The grant program is sponsored by Elrich and the County Council through the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security. The County announced its $1.2 million commitment to protecting at-risk organizations in September 2024. This fiscal year, the County provided the largest amount of funding in the program’s history, according to Bethesda Magazine.
Stewart said this grant program is especially important in light of federal changes from President Donald Trump’s administration.
“As the White House stokes fears and flames of discord, we are seeing many people in our community be fearful,” Stewart said at the event. “We hear from residents and we feel their worry when they tell us they are scared to go to places of worship. We hear and feel the sadness and the trepidation in the voices of parents who are concerned to send their children to places.”
The county received more than 120 grant applications for the funding, Elrich said. The total requests exceeded $1.6 million, notably more than the $1.2 million allocated by the county to help prevent local hate crimes.
The influx of grant applications comes as Montgomery County experiences an increase in hate incidents throughout the past few years. Elrich referenced the Montgomery County police department’s 2024 bias incident report, which found that 45% of the 192 reported incidents involved some sort of verbal intimidation, 11% were written intimidation and 11% involved simple assault. Three-fourths of the reported bias incidents involved religion or race, according to the 2024 report.
Luke Hodgson, the director of the county’s Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, said Montgomery County’s Black and Jewish populations are the target of “most of” the reported bias incidents. More than 60% of these reported incidents happened in schools, he added.
An October 2023 Maryland State Police report revealed surges in antisemitic and anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, which contributed to an almost 20% increase in hate incidents in Maryland in 2022. Antisemitic vandalism has repeatedly been found in public spaces around Montgomery County.
“These numbers do not reflect the type of county we want to live in. Montgomery County is proud to be one of the most culturally diverse communities in the country, and we’re focusing on safety and security for everyone,” Elrich said.
